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Bear with me: Sun Bear @ParkTheatre

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If The Light House is an uplifting tale of survival, Sarah Richardson’s Sun Bear gives a contrasting take on this. Sarah plays Katy. We’re introduced to Katy as she runs through a list of pet office peeves with her endlessly perky coworkers, particularly about coworkers stealing her pens. It’s a hilarious opening monologue that would have you wishing you had her as a coworker to help relieve you from the boredom of petty office politics.  But something is not quite right in the perfect petty office, where people work together well. And that is her. And despite her protesting that she is fine, the pet peeves and the outbursts are becoming more frequent. As the piece progresses, maybe the problem lies in a past relationship, where Katy had to be home by a particular hour, not stay out late with office colleagues and not be drunk enough not to answer his calls. Perhaps the perky office colleagues are trying to help, and perhaps Katy is trying to reach out for help. It has simple staging

Theatre: All New People


All New People, written and starring Zach Braff is a play that takes place over 90 or so minutes in the dead of winter at a beach house on Long Beach Island New Jersey. Zach's character Charlie is staying at his friends beach house for a few days as he is having a bit of crisis at this point in his life. He is about to end it all, when a real estate agent walks in... Then follows a fireman, and then a high-class hooker his best friend arranged to cheer him up with.

The stage is set for a bizarre and off-beat set of stories and revelations from this collection of four unlikely people. There is a detailed discussion about scabies and debates about the merits of various intoxicating substances. Projections help with the back stories of the characters, but it works best when it is just some off-beat random discussions about matters of trivial importance. Or are they? Whatever the case, the action moves briskly and the laughs are fairly constant.


Along with the Scrubs and Garden State star Zach Braff is a pretty hot cast. Eve Myles (known from Torchwood) plays the mildly eccentric real estate agent, Paul Hilton is the druggy fireman and Susannah Fielding is the glamorous escort with a heart of gold and tits to die for.

Maybe there are some Torchwood fans out there, but judging by the fans that are now gathering outside the theatre every night perhaps Mr Braff has got a potential hit on his hands. Assuming they are all paying to get a ticket and not just staying at home watching repeat episodes of Scrubs on E4...

Worth a look, if you can grab a ticket... I was impressed with the box seats in the circle as they were good value, close to the action and come complete with a hooks for your coats. The restricted view was not such a big deal given most of the action takes place dead centre.

First impressions are as follows...
Preview Boo: All New People (mp3)

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